Pillow Fight

It was known shortly after Los Angeles County referred the Domestic Violence complaint against Michael Avenatti to the City Attorney for misdemeanor charges that it was…

How do I put this? The allegation is that he screamed at her and called her names and struck her with a pillow and threw her out on the street resulting in scrapes, scratches, and bruises. That kind of behavior is definitely not cool and the screaming and name calling amount to verbal assault (which can be charged) if proven. Michael Avenatti is probably no avatar of Gentlemanly behavior.

The allegations that concerned me were the ones about his messing with the trust accounts containing the money people donated to Stephanie Clifford.

I knew a lawyer like that. He was Capo of my local and a nice guy mostly. He was heavily leveraged in Real Estate and needed to make a payment so he dipped into an account to cover it and later replaced the money.

No harm, no foul right?

Not if you’re an Attorney. He lost his license, got fined Hundreds of Thousands, and went to jail for 2 years (reduced to 6 months for good behavior, he did replace the money after all). He got hard time because he was single and the Judge wanted to make an example, lots of people walk away with just a fine.

My DJ buddy got asked to be a character witness so they had a visit and my buddy said- “This will be easy. I’ll tell them about all the times you bought Rolexes for the members and bailed out the Local financially.”

Hah! Just kidding. He never did that and my buddy played it straight. He still went to jail though.

Recently we find the dispute between Stephanie and Michael has been resolved.

The Los Angeles district attorney declined to charge him with a felony but sent the case to the city attorney’s office, where misdemeanor charges are still being considered in the case.

Just before Avenatti was scheduled back in court to take on part of the case against Trump that made both him and Daniels household names, Daniels publicly criticized Avenatti last week over his treatment of her and her finances.

Daniels told The Daily Beast that Avenatti filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump against her wishes. That lawsuit was filed after Trump used Twitter to mock Daniels about a man she said had threatened her in a parking lot to make sure she stayed silent about the affair she said she had with Trump more than a decade ago.

Daniels said she was not told that suit was going to be filed. She also complained that Avenatti had not given her an accounting she had demanded of how more than half a million dollars collected on a crowdfunding site for her legal defense was being spent.

Avenatti said her statements took him by surprise.

I have always been an open book with Stormy as to all aspects of her cases and she knows that. You need only look back at her numerous prior interviews where she states we talk and communicate multiple times every day about her cases,” Avenatti said in a statement to CNN.

He also pointed out that the defamation case was filed in April and if Daniels was unhappy with it, he could have dropped the suit. They didn’t, and Daniels lost. Otero determined that the President’s language was simply hyperbole and within his First Amendment rights.

On Sunday, Daniels seemingly reversed course, tweeting, “Pleased that Michael and I have sorted s**t out and we know the accounting is on the up and up. We are going to kick ass together on two coasts tomorrow.”

She elaborated during an appearance in Washington on Monday evening, saying Avenatti had shown her an accounting for the money.

“I just started having people ask me where the money went, was it going to be used to pay Trump, was there money left over, and I feel like people who gave me money deserve to know where it went. Because it’s so kind and generous for all these people to do this for me, and I am not a thief,” she said.

“So I just kept asking for accounting and I couldn’t get it. You know, the money, he was suppose to … the security is paid out of that and it just became difficult to get some monies.”

But, she added, “he sent me the accounting and it looks good.”

Avenatti said on Monday that there were “no issues between Stormy and I.”

Avenatti still has blood in his eye for Michael Cohen however-

Avenatti has sought to depose Cohen early as part of the suit against him and Davidson. The judge hearing the suit denied the request on Monday, citing staffing reasons and saying the deposition would have to wait until after Cohen is sentenced in federal court, and stayed Daniels’ case against Davidson and Cohen.

In a sentencing memo filed late Friday night, Cohen’s lawyers argued for his sentence to include no prison time, following his guilty pleas. Trump has disavowed Cohen and called on Monday for him to receive “a full and complete sentence.”

Speaking to reporters outside of court Monday morning, Avenatti said he and Daniels hoped that Cohen is sentenced to maximum prison time.

“My client and I hope that he is sentenced to the absolute maximum federal penitentiary time,” Avenatti said.

He also tweeted shortly after the appearance, saying, “It will be interesting next Wednesday to see if Michael Cohen is immediately taken into custody to begin serving a lengthy prison sentence for his multiple federal felonies. The judge is not a push over and will likely appreciate that he can cooperate with Mueller from prison.”

Did I mention the best Attorney I know is also the biggest asshole I ever met?

Update: Today Avenatti announced that he would not seek the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, citing family reasons.